Oxidative stress contributes to a number of human degenerative diseases associated with aging, such as Parkinson's disease, and Alzheimer's disease, as well as to Huntington's Chorea, diabetes and Friedreich's Ataxia, and to non-specific damage that accumulates with aging. It also contributes to inflammation and ischemic-reperfusion tissue injury in stroke and heart attack, and also during organ transplantation and surgery. To prevent the damage caused by oxidative stress a number of antioxidant therapies have been developed. However, most of these are not targeted within cells and are therefore less than optimally effective.
Mitochondria are intracellular organelles responsible for energy metabolism. Consequently, mitochondrial defects are damaging, particularly to neural and muscle tissues which have high energy demands. They are also the major source of the free radicals and reactive oxygen species that cause oxidative stress inside most cells. Therefore, the applicants believe delivering antioxidants selectively to mitochondria will be more effective than using non-targeted antioxidants. Accordingly, it is towards the provision of antioxidants which may be targeted to mitochondria that the present invention is directed.
Lipophilic cations may be accumulated in the mitochondrial matrix because of their positive charge (Rottenberg, (1979) Methods Enzymol, 55, 547-560; Chen, (1988) Annu Rev Cell Biol 4, 155-181). Such ions are accumulated provided they are sufficiently lipophilic to screen the positive charge or delocalise it over a large surface area, also provided that there is no active efflux pathway and the cation is not metabolized or immediately toxic to a cell.
The focus of the invention is therefore on an approach by which it is possible to use the ability of mitochondria to concentrate specific lipophilic cations to take up linked antioxidants so as to target the antioxidant to the major source of free radicals and reactive oxygen species causing the oxidative stress.